PARIS—Solid gold can be deposited in Earth's crust "almost instantaneously" during earthquakes, said a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday. The gold is formed when a tremor splits open a fluid-filled cavity in the Earth's crust, causing a sudden drop in pressure, according to a team of Australian researchers. This, in turn, causes the fluid to expand rapidly and evaporate, and any gold particles that had been dissolved in it to "precipitate almost immediately," said a Nature press release. "Repeated earthquakes could therefore lead to the build-up of economic-grade gold deposits." The researchers said much of th...
Keep on reading: Striking gold: Earthquakes deposit precious metal
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